Start Campus ‘mega data centre’ three years behind schedule

Europe’s largest data centre project at Sines in Portugal, which is at the centre of a political scandal that resulted in the resignation of the prime minister, is three years behind schedule.

According to the online site ECO, the Start Campus mega data centre is still categorised as a pilot project.
Start Campus is seen as the second largest FDI in Portugal since Volkswagen Autoeuropa in the 1990s with investment from the funds Davidson Kempner of the US, Pioneer Point Partners from the UK,
The project involves setting up a vast campus for data centres in Sines, on a site occupied by a now defunct EDP power station.
The first phase of the project is almost concluded, but is three years behind schedule. The project was initially called Sines 4.0 when it was announced in April 2021 and is considered to be a project of Potential National Interest (PNI) by the government.
Portugal’s Public Ministry now suspects that Start Campus hired the lawyer Diogo Lacerda Machado because he was a friend of the prime minister’s, paying him €6,533.32 per month to influence the government and public companies and entities to take decisions in its favour. Lacerda, it is alleged, was also offered a 0.5% capital share option.